Unlikely allies back House bill for Gulf Coast jobs

WASHINGTON -- Hurricane season begins today, and with it an effort to gain some traction on Capitol Hill for an ambitious plan to create 100,000 "green jobs" along the Gulf Coast for victims of past storms.

The Gulf Coast Civic Works Act was born 2,100 miles from New Orleans at a San Jose State University "campus sleep-out" on election night 2006. Students watched Spike Lee's documentary, "When the Levees Broke," on a giant outdoor screen, and wanted to know what they could do to help.

The outcome was a 73-page piece of legislation, inspired by New Deal public works projects and crafted by a law student from Chicago, that would create a minimum of 100,000 environmentally sustainable jobs and training opportunities on the Gulf Coast to permit victims of past hurricanes to remain or return home and earn a living rebuilding their communities and restoring the coast.

The bill would create a Gulf Coast Civic Works Commission, operating out of the Office of the Federal Coordinator of Gulf Coast Rebuilding, now scheduled to close in the fall. The commissioners would be chosen by the U.S. president and the Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas governors.

The commission would consult with local advisory boards, composed of local officials and community representatives, about which civic works projects to finance in each community. It would require local hiring and contracting in filling jobs, said Scott Myers-Lipton, a San Jose State sociology professor who has acted as the maestro of the movement. "Attempts would be made to reach out to the larger diaspora," he said.

If implemented, he said, it could provide a template for organizing disaster recovery. "If this is enacted, it could really serve as a model for the rest of the nation," Myers-Lipton said.

The legislation has enlisted an unlikely array of allies: from ACORN and Oxfam America to the New Orleans City Council and the Louisiana Republican Party, which a year ago passed a resolution stating that "empowering residents to realize their right to return and rebuild" is a moral obligation.

The bill's 16 sponsors in the House include three members of the Louisiana congressional delegation: the lone Democrat, Charlie Melancon of Napoleonville, and Republicans Anh "Joseph" Cao of New Orleans and Rodney Alexander of Quitman, along with Rep. Gene Taylor, a Democrat who represents the Mississippi Gulf Coast.

"I believe the Gulf Coast Civic Works Act would provide people with the right to participate in the recovery, to return home with dignity and integrity and to provide them with decent work opportunities," Cao said.

"It's about getting our people back home," said Melancon, about letting people "be part of the rebuild of my own community."

But the legislation, which would bring an estimated $6 billion to $7 billion to the Gulf Coast -- a price tag consciously left out of the bill -- did not even get a hearing in the most recent Congress. And with even more water and recovery dollars over the dam since Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, backers of the bill must persuade skeptics that the bill is not asking for too much, too late.

The legislation has yet to attract a Senate sponsor, and the most likely candidate, Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., has yet to be convinced it's the way to go.

President Barack Obama, who promised to do right by New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, has yet to so much as wink in their direction. He chose not to include the proposal in his massive stimulus package, even though the Center for American Progress, a kind of intellectual anteroom for the administration, had recommended including a scaled-down $1 billion, 15,000-job version of it.

Nonetheless, backers believe the act still makes tremendous sense.

"It is a little bit late, but it's never too late," said David Gauthe of Thibodeaux, who, as a member of the Republican State Central Committee, offered the resolution backing the recovery proposal.

"The federal government has consistently failed to address the needs of the Gulf Coast," said Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat from San Jose, Calif., who emerged as the lead sponsor of the bill that had its genesis in her district. "This bill will help ensure that critical infrastructure is finally rebuilt."

Lofgren and the four Gulf Coast representatives are sending out a "dear colleague" letter today seeking more co-sponsors. And a delegation of supporters, led by Myers-Lipton, has been meeting with a succession of legislative aides.

Myers-Lipton, who writes and teaches about race and poverty, knows the bill's supporters have their work cut out for them. He has been told by members of Congress that they need to gather at least 75 co-sponsors to be taken seriously enough to guarantee a hearing.

In a series of trips, students from San Jose State and other schools traveled the Gulf asking local residents and activists how the jobs program should be designed.

The legislation was drawn up by Jonathan Rhodes, who recently graduated from Chicago Kent College of Law and moved to New Orleans to pursue a career in public interest law.